3 Copywriting Mistakes Health Experts Make
It can be easy to forget that not everyone is the expert you are, especially when you eat, sleep, and breathe your expertise! Without meaning to, you might be fire-hosing them with WAY too much information, dropping industry acronyms they don’t follow, or just straight-up confusing them.
Today, we’re addressing the most common mistakes we see health experts make in their copywriting, to help you streamline your communications and build a connection with the audience you really want to have!
Why You Can’t Afford NOT To Write To Your Audience
If you want to connect with a broader audience who doesn’t have that same background as you, then you need to find ways to actively simplify your words. This way, the “regular” person on the other side of the screen—the busy mom, the corporate professional, the IBS sufferer—who isn’t familiar with your field, can follow along without having to work hard or feel like they’re reading a textbook.
By learning to meet your audience where they’re at and finding ways to join them at their level of understanding, you’ll build trust, improve connection, and increase engagement.
3 Copywriting Mistakes Health Experts Make
Mistake #1: Using the Passive Voice
Passive writing the kind of writing that’s most common in textbooks and medical documents. It’s lines like, “After your appointment, the next steps will be outlined for you by your practitioner” or “The child will need support from their caregiver.” Passivity creates distance, it’s a little stuffy, and, frankly, it’s boring!
How to fix it: Make the agent of the sentence your subject, and the old subject into your new object! In other words, flip it and reverse it!
So, “After your appointment, next steps will be outlined for you by your practitioner…”
Becomes, “After your appointment, your practitioner will outline next steps for you.”
Ditching the passive voice in your copy will help your readers connect with your message, which improves your readability and engagement rates.
Mistake #2: Using Industry Jargon
Industry jargon is exclusionary, always. It’s a language that ONLY those who are “in the industry club” know how to speak. It can make people feel left out, or even make them feel stupid—which isn’t your intention, but also isn’t a risk you should ever take.
If there’s a simpler, more accessible word you can use in place of industry jargon, use it! (There’s almost always an option.) And, whenever you use an acronym, write out the full word(s) first, and put the acronym in brackets right afterwards. This way, you give yourself permission to use just the acronym from that point out.
For example, you could say, “Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is really important. SEO involves…”
Bottom line: Avoid barrier-building jargon and undefined acronyms in your copywriting at all costs!
Mistake #3: Saying Too Much for the Platform You’re On
You’re a smart cookie, and you have TONS of knowledge (plus research to back it up). Thing is, not every platform, post, or online channel is right for the amount of information you’re trying to share.
Make sure the info you’re sharing is appropriate for the medium you’re on by taking time to consider where you’re saying what. For example, a social media post isn’t the best place to download your entire brain, but a blog post might be! And, if your blog posts are going on 3,000+ words, maybe it’s time for an eBook!
Your readers are on each channel expecting content tailored for that channel. When you overload them with more than they want or expect, they’re more likely to scroll past or move on. By writing your content with the channel in mind, more people will stop to read it.
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